


Almost Halfway

by shipperman



Category: The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Hitchhiker AU, M/M, With Annabeth/Percy for backstory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-29
Updated: 2014-10-25
Packaged: 2018-02-19 04:47:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2375108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shipperman/pseuds/shipperman
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They meet accidentaly on the road, end up sharing a car, a room, a bed, a drink.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. City Lights, Traffic Lights

Jason checks his backpack again. It has the minimum he needs for his survival for the necessary time: Clothing, a US map, a book on hitchhiking, a camera, and an impressive collection of electronics. (He was one of those tech junkies.) He sits in the dusty and dirty seat at the train station, waiting for his only way out. California is the dream of many, but for years, it was his prison. He’d been thrown into a boarding school before he could even remember, and from there to college, there was no chance of leaving. He barely remembered his parents, but didn’t care. They probably didn’t remember that they had a son either.

The train stops and he is the first one to get in, dying to get away fast. He finds his seat and stares away at the window. The headphones blaring pop rock take his mind out of that place and the scenery outside, the sun bright and the people rushing everywhere. He can’t wait.

Jason doesn’t know where he is going. Not that it matters.

He wakes a few hours later a state away. It seems good enough for now, stopping in a city so small that he can almost count the main streets on his fingers.

 

“I would like a room, please” he asks, leaning on the counter.

The girl, sixteen if that old, smiles at him “Just for you? Or do you have company?”

He shakes his head. “Just me” and pretends he didn’t see her shameless attempt of a flirt. _Small towns_ , he thinks, _I’m probably someone very strange around here. I can’t blame her. I would find strange some teenager coming up for a room at almost midnight._

Being honest, Jason is not new to this. He was always good looking, which meant that people were constantly smiling at him, and favoring him, and lately, shamelessly flirting. Even his roommate’s girlfriend had tried to kiss him once. It did not end up well. However, he did the best he could to get out of those situations: pretend he didn’t see it, completely ignore it or a brief and strong no. He hated all of that attention. He hated that he couldn’t stop it.

“Here are your keys” she offers him the key chain with a big number 57 on it.

The hotel is small and cozy, and should cost little enough to not interfere with his budget. Jason has no idea where he is going to, but expects some kind of divine and mysterious interference that will give his life purpose and will show him the way he should follow. A part of him knows it won’t happen. But he expects anyway.

 

He zaps through the TV channels. Most of them are showing bad sitcoms with pre-recorded laughs that it makes it all sound fake and ridiculous. He can’t find anything decent to watch, but can’t sleep. It’s too late to go out and too boring to stay inside. He questions the trip. He feels the room slowly suffocating him. Every bit of air from his lungs being compressed and leaving, he feels his head turning and can’t stop. He opens the window, and the night air washes away the panic.

From the window he can see the small village he stopped. He doesn’t know the name of it, and doesn’t care. That’s not the point of it all. He sees the small houses dark, and the white street light lighting the thin streets, where everything is too calm and silent. No cars, no horns, no people, no life. Not in the way he is used to. He finally understands why he can’t sleep.

He puts on his earphones and picks the less annoying songs he can and makes a single playlist. Minutes later, he is asleep. Peaceful and content. With a purpose. He doesn’t know yet, but sure it will come out in said time.

 

By the morning, he showers in the bathroom in his room, letting the hot water have a calming effect on him. It works. He dresses feeling lighter and better. He can’t avoid thinking about the girl at the reception yesterday. As he dresses, he opens a map on the bed. It’s hard to choose where he wants to go. Everywhere sounds good, and none of them right. He put on a long-sleeved shirt to hide the tattoo in his arms. An eagle and some crossed bars. He got them when he turned sixteen, in the last time he saw his parents. The last time they said he was too different from what they had planned for him.

He doesn’t want to walk around the city, but doesn’t want to take the train again. The girl suggested the road, where he could get a ride. He likes the idea.

A car stops for him. A woman in her mid-thirties, with two cats in the back seat. “Come on in, darling” she says, in a heavy southern accent. He gets in before she can change her mind.

* * *

He closes his eyes, waiting. The red light seems to take an eternity to fade. In that space of time he watched Manhattan one last time before being forced to watch endless red horizons. The green light goes on and he drives off, enjoying the cold air of the city in his face. The sun is rising as he drives through the Williamsburg Bridge, making it look like a scene from a movie. He smiles at the sight and turns the volume of the radio up.

On the bench next to him there is a gift from his mom to Annabeth, which Sally made him promise he would not open and say to his girlfriend that _his mother had made it especially to her and no one else, including himself._ He had no idea what was inside the package, but it didn’t matter. Sally kissed him on the cheek when he was in the car, ruffled his hair, and gave all the same and common motherly advices.

He had called his girlfriend right before leaving, to tell her that he is already on his way. She sounded excited, and somewhat sad. They were apart for the last six months, when Annabeth moved to Texas, with her professor, as she was assisting him on his research; since then, they have only talked through phones and the internet. Every day of the first week, then she forgot on the next Sunday, and he was out the next Friday and couldn’t talk to her and slowly, they barely talked to each other.

But three weeks prior he called her (the first time in the month) to tell that he was going for a visit. He needed to take a break from college and driving to Texas seemed a good way to clear his head from the stress and pressure. She sounded hesitant at first. Then thrilled and anxious ever since.

By midday his voice was severely damaged, from singing to the wind, and his stomach painfully empty. He cursed the lack of Burger Kings at roads. He drove until he found a restaurant in a small town that look decent enough, which wasn’t much.

He had a burger and fries and a huge cup of Coke. If there was one thing that Percy loved was fast food. The most disgusting, the better. He sits in the parking lot, in his car, with the windows down, blaring some old song Annabeth sent in a mix tape for him when they started dating, back in high school; he sings along (and try to chew, at the same time. It’s not a pretty picture).


	2. The Fastest Lane

“Hey, do you know where the bus station is?” his moment is ruined when a guy pops up in his window “Yeah, sorry about that” he apologizes when he sees that Percy dropped a few of his fries.

“Bus station?” Percy asks, looking around, to try to set himself into place

“Yeah” he confirms “I came here in a truck, but now I’m kind of lost, and it’s getting late, so I should be going”

Percy almost chokes on the food. He takes a sip of Coke before saying in a horrified voice: “You came in a truck?”

“Yes” the boy agrees “The driver was particularly nasty. But that’s just the great side of hitchhiking” he shrugged.

Percy considered for a moment. “Where are you going to?” he asks.

“Away” he replies, simply.

“That’s very poetic and dramatic”

“I’m rather desperate, but I’ll go with that”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I have no idea what else do to with my life, so why not travel the country? I mean, what harm could it make me?”

“So many….” Percy shakes his head, disapproving. He clearly doesn’t think this is a valid experience, but he isn’t supposed to be getting inside people’s business.

He takes another bite of the burger while Jason takes out his phone and taps fast against the screen. He makes a disgusted face and Percy can only imagine what is going on.

“So, can you help me?’ Jason asks, looking at Percy again.

“Yeah” he hesitates, considering for a moment.

And for a whole moment there is no other comments. Jason waits patiently, but nothing. “So where should I go?” he offers, trying to help.

“Do you want a ride?”

“Do you generally offer rides to strangers?” The boy asks, raising an eyebrow.

“What’s your name?”

“I’m Jason.” He replies, offering a hand.

“I’m Percy” He shakes Jason’s hand “Not strangers anymore” Percy smiles.

The boy had no other choice but chuckle. “Do you mind if I ask where are you going?”

“Texas” Percy replies, biting the hamburger. He leaves the car carrying the food, and sit on the bench right in front of his car. Jason follows him. “I’m going to visit my girlfriend there. She is studying some constructions or something like that”

“Sounds cool”

“Nah, it doesn’t. I think it’s boring too. You can say it” he laughs. “Want some?” he offers, pointing to the Coke on his hand.

Jason puts his hand over his stomach, “No thanks. I already ate too much”

“Okay” he drinks a sip of it. “Aren’t you even going to wonder if I’m a serial killer or something like it?”

“I have a pocket knife and I’ve been training in one-on-one combat since I was four. I’m pretty sure I can take care of myself” he says at once, and tries to light it up with a smile. He tilts his head “Are you a serial killer?”

Percy again is surprised by the tone of the question. He could easily be asking if it was going to rain later. “No. And I don’t plan on becoming one”

“Good. Me neither. We’re settled then” the boy nods.

Percy finishes eating and puts all inside the paper bag. “Ready to go?” he asks, standing up, cleaning his fingers as much as he can. “Wait, I have on condition” he says, stopping half way to the car and turning to the boy, “I’ll let you travel with me, but you have to do one thing for me”

“What?”

“You have to tell me your history”

“Why?”

“I’m curious.” He shrugs “Will you?”

“Okay” Jason’s voice is only just louder than a whisper

Percy smiles and gestures to Jason get in the car.

* * *

“What do you want to know?” he asks, as soon as they are in the road again.

“You choose what you tell me” Percy says, trying to hold down his curiosity. He wants to know everything.

Jason takes a minute to organize his thoughts. “My name is Jason Grace, I lived in San Francisco my entire life, stuck in a boarding school the whole time, barely saw my parents during those years, then got into Berkley even though I was not sure if that was what I really wanted, and a year after that I decided to drop out, for a while at least, or else I’d get depressed and I really want to avoid that”

He watches as Percy sit there, in silence, his fingers tapping the steering wheel. “That’s all? It doesn’t sound so bad…”

“It isn’t. I just don’t like it” Jason shrugs. It was one of those times that people asked why he was travelling. He had no idea why. It just seemed like a good thing to try. There wasn’t any magical mysterious special reason, he was just tired of school.

“Well, good thing, Jason Grace, that you found me,” Percy turns quickly to him, flashing a smile “because I am about to shove some sense into your life”

Jason stares at Percy, watching the very optimistic boy. “Thank you” he chuckles, and he means it.

* * *

Percy’s idea of “sense” involved with the windows down, singing tacky 80’s songs, which meant that Jason never felt more uncomfortable in a car before.

For the next couple of hours Percy asked Jason so many questions that it was hard to keep track. Most of them were about his time on the road, and what he expected to find. He purposely ignored and tried to avoid any question that would drag back to California, because if the guy was running from there, he probably wasn’t very fan of the place.

For the first forty five minutes, Jason sounded boring. In the next 25, he got a little more comfortable with Percy. In the next hour, it might have been a trick of light or an optical illusion, but Percy could swear he saw a quick smile in Jason’s lips. Two hours later, he was sure he had seen the blond smile.

“…And then I was completely sure that it was death, because I don’t have that many luck!” he finishes, smiling.

“I mean, come on” Percy scoffs “I bet he wasn’t _that_ bad of a driver”

“Did you miss the part of the cow? Or when I hit my head in the window so many times that I’m almost sure that there is part of my skins stuck to that forever…”

“So me is a pretty upgrade, huh?” Percy brags.

“So far, so great” Jason agrees.

They had been driving the whole afternoon, and Jason offered Percy a few times if he needed him to drive or to take a break at some place, but Percy didn’t seem tired. However, he constantly talked about food.

Jason didn’t say anything, just smiled watching the boy’s sudden happiness. As if he wasn’t already normally that excited with the world around him.

“So I wasn’t the best thing about this trip?” Jason starts again.

“Dude, I’m sorry. But a cheeseburger won that prize” Percy apologizes, smiling. “But you get fourth place, no doubts”

“Fourth?” Jason sounds offended “Fourth? I want at least the third”

“Fine you get third, just because I’m not a big fan of sunsets, I prefer sunrises” Percy shrugs

“What is the second?” Jason asks, before biting his food.

“Second is that I’ll get to see Annabeth again!” He sounds very excited.

“Yeah, you never told me about her” Jason comments, wiping his fingers on a napkin “Tell me everything about her”

“Okay” Percy thinks for a second, gathering the most important things about her “She studies architecture, and she is accompanying a professor in Texas, studying some old files and trying to make some sense of it. She is _really_ smart, and she corrects me every time I say something stupid” he says, sounding rather proud.

“Oh, cool. How did you guys meet?”

“School” He explains “The usual, you know? High School, I was from the swim team, she was debate team, our friends set us up…” He doesn’t sound excited as before “And we’ve been together ever since. Three years now.”

“Cool” Jason nodded “I never had a long term relationship. I always ended up fucking everything up” he says, frowning.

Percy turns to him “What do you mean?”

“As much as I hate this stereotype, I used to be a pretty big slut back in high school” he said, feeling his ears warm.

Percy squinted, repeating “What do you mean?”

“Are you sure you want to know?” Jason knew how bad it was.

“Yes”

“You can’t back up later. It’s pretty fucked, I have to say” Jason warned, sounding deadly serious.

“I can deal with it” Percy promised.

“Okay. You have to understand: I did literally everything that had a slight chance to piss off my parents. I got into fights weekly, I had awful grades during my freshman year, and was caught having sex in the dorms several times; I skinny dipped in the lake, I set fire to a garbage can, I skipped two weeks of class to go to Vegas” he listed “All of that to piss them off. But I failed to realize that I was only damaging my future. But it was kind of late already”

Percy chuckled “I have so many questions right now’

“Ask it!” Jason smiles.

“What did your parents did when you did all of that?”

“Nothing.” Jason bit his lip, trying to choose an appropriate way to tell the story. “They came to school, twice, but that was it. And all the other times they just wrote really angry emails saying I was grounded in the minute I got home. Which was useless, since they _never_ let me go back home. Except for summer and holidays break, I was away from home all the time. And when I was there, I simply jumped the window and left for like a week, and they would only notice when they realized a credit card was missing” Jason shrugs “I seriously don’t know how I didn’t bankrupt them…”

Percy was silent for a moment, digesting it. “But why did you do that?” He asks, choosing his words carefully

“To not let them forget I was still there.” Jason says, bitterly. “You see, I was a product of one night of too much drink and make up sex. I wasn’t planned, and when my mom realized she was pregnant, my dad didn’t let her have an abortion. He is kind of a dick, actually. My mom got depressed shortly after and started drinking more and more; my dad started getting mistress on each corner, and doing heavier drugs. My sister was the only person that cared for me. Of course they blamed the unwanted child, so they sent me away to a boarding school. And this is where it gets sad: they got better. They are now a functional family, so it makes me wonder if I am really the problem” he frowned again “So I just really wanted to show them I am still here, one night mistake that will haunt them forever”

Percy didn’t even knew what to say. It was all too heavy for him.

“It’s a lot, I know” Jason says, chuckling “But don’t worry for me. I’m okay now”

“Are you?” Percy asks, hesitantly putting a hand on the boy’s shoulder “Dude, I’m sorry for all the shit you had to go through. If you need to talk or anything, you can talk to me. I’m serious”

“Thanks” Jason smiles at him. People generally had that same reaction. He grew used to that too. “Ok, you said you had a lot of questions. What next?”

Percy shook his head, trying to remember. “Oh, right. What you mean by stereotype?”

“Slut bisexuals.” Jason says looking at Percy. “I feel like I’m a bad example, because all I did in school was to flirt and fuck everyone that showed the minimum interest”

“So this is where it goes to the sex on the dorms part, right?” Percy tries to take the conversation away from the tragic backstory. He knows he is doing the right thing when Jason chuckles.

“Yeah. Actually, most of the times was never actual sex. I usually asked my roommate to go to the principal and say shit about me, and when they got in the room I was making out with someone. This was the only way I knew that surely my parents would know about it.” He smiled, mischievously “Besides, I was never stupid enough to have sex _on the dorms_. We did pretty much everywhere else, where people would never look” he explains, proud of himself. “I was a good bad example”

“You sound like a terrific bad example”

“I was!” Jason laughs. “See, you wanted to know my story, I told you.” He bites his lip.

Percy says, decisively “It’s good to know my road buddy” he punches Jason on the arm. “Besides, I could easily make a book out of that and win _tons_ of money,” he laughs

 

Later, they found a small motel. Each of them got a room ( _“No man, you already have to deal with me in your car, so I’ll not force you to spend the night anywhere me. I owe you this”_ ), numbers 25 and 26, and paid in advance ( _“Come on, it’s not a big deal. I can pay. I was going to stop anyway, it’s not because of you. I won’t let you pay for me, Jason, don’t even try. Just stop”_ ). Percy had two bags and Jason just a backpack. They climbed the stairs, side by side, while Percy talked about how the woman at the reception kept flirting with Jason.

“Oh it wasn’t like that” Jason complains

“Are you kidding me? Every single person that crossed our path flirted with you. Shamelessly. Or they just kept staring creepily from distance. Like that guy at the gas station. I was fully expecting him to say he would like to pump other things”

“Well, he was kind of cute” Jason nods, agreeing.

Percy turns to him “Now you say it?” he shakes his head in disbelief “After miles you say it… I could have given you guys some time alone…”

“Oh stop it. I would never do it.” He bites his tongue. “I don’t do that kind of thing. Not anymore.”

Percy gets to the top of the stairs first, and stops there, waiting for Jason. “I’m sure that people everywhere want to kiss you. I mean, just look at you!” Percy gestures at Jason. “I am one that would” he says, as if isn’t a big deal.

“Are you suggesting anything, Jackson?” Jason smiles, suggestively, just to see Percy blush and walk heading his room. He chuckles and finishes the stairs to his room.

“Tomorrow at nine?” Percy has to keep going as soon as possible. Annabeth is waiting for him.

“Works for me.” Jason agrees nodding. 

* * *

 

He almost didn’t wake up in time. Percy had a bad habit of waking up too late for everything, and as much as he hated to be late, he never could make himself to get out of bed when the alarm went off. He dressed himself quickly and went outside, carrying his bags on his back, with his hair messy and breath smelling like fresh mints gum.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry” he apologizes when he sees Jason sitting at the top of the staircase. “I overslept. Again.”

“Don’t worry” he says, looking at the distance.

He stops by his side. “Have you been here for long?”

“For a while, yes” Jason looks up at Percy “I couldn’t sleep very well” and then Percy could imagine a million reasons he might have disturbed Jason during the night. Even though he knew he didn’t even snored.

“Oh yes,” he couldn’t figure out what else to say. Jason had dark bags under his eyes, and looked completely exhausted, which meant that he probably wasn’t going to be in his best mood during the day. Percy prepared himself to the silence of when they first met. “Ready to hit the road?” he asked, going down the stairs, carrying his bags.

Jason followed him “Sure” he even managed to give a quick smile.

 

When they were checking out, the receptionist was hitting on Jason again, except she had completely dissed any type of subtlety. Percy imagined that Jason would probably blush and didn’t form coherent sentences, because of all the attention she was giving him. However, he didn’t even flinch. He treated her politely, and gracefully pretended he didn’t saw the piece of paper with her number on it, when she tried to slip it into his hand.

“So, no chances for the receptionist girl?” Percy asked, joking, when they were walking to the car.

“Nah” Jason shook his head. “I told you, I don’t do this anymore.” He bit his lip, hesitantly. “At least not with anyone. I have to like the person”

“You didn’t like her?” Percy asked, unlocking the car door “She was kind of cute”

“She was” Jason agreed “But not my type of cute” he said, getting inside the car. “Besides, I’m pretty sure she had a boyfriend. I don’t like to be _the other one_ ”

“How do you know?” Percy wondered.

“It’s a small town, and she is kind of cute. That’s literally all that is needed”

“That sound like you couldn’t find a better reason” Percy shook his head, while turning the engine on. “But okay. You don’t have to do anything” he said, “I’m not pressuring you, or anything. I’m just curious”

“It’s okay” Jason nodded. “So, I’m sure I’ll fall asleep in the near future, so you won’t be mad at me if I do that and leave you alone? I can try really hard if you want”

“Nah, man, you can sleep, really. You look terrible.” Percy said without taking the eyes of the road.

“Well, thanks. For not minding and dragging my ego down, I feel much better now” Jason joked

However, Jason didn’t slept, because Percy didn’t let him. He blared out 90’s classic, and sang the top hits of Britney Spears in a high pitch voice that made Jason laugh. Eventually, he joined him (when they were singing N’Sync classics, although Jason claimed to be a fan of Backstreet Boys). By the time they reached Spice Girls, Jason had almost forgotten that he was sleepy when he got in the car. It took him far too much to realize that Percy made him feel at home.

“I honestly don’t get you” Percy shook his head, fingers tapping on the steering wheel “You don’t like baseball, you speak fucking latin and you have a golden retriever! That’s it?”

“That’s it” Jason nodded

“Are you seriously telling me that’s the most important set of things I should know about you?”

“Yes”

“That’s sad”

“Thank you” he replied ironically

“No, but like, what about your friends?”

“I have very few. There is Reyna who is quite literally everything I would ever need. And Frank who has been my friend since pretty much always. And Octavian who is now a tremendous piece of shit. And Gwen and Dakota who are probably getting married anytime soon” he shrugged “Those are the only people from school I cared enough”

“I get it. I don’t have many people from school either. Just… well… Annabeth”

“I really want to know her” Jason said “She sounds amazing”

“She is man, she is.” Percy smiled, proud. “Does this means you are coming to Texas with me?”

“I don’t know” Jason bit his lip, hesitantly. “Maybe.” He waited another second. “I don’t know. I don’t have anywhere to be, and I don’t want to go back to college and I never been to Texas” he listed, counting on his fingers “But I don’t want to mess up you and Annabel. I don’t want to be a burden or something’

“You won’t be”

“Then okay.” He agreed. “I’ll go with you.”

“You’ll love her.”


	3. Distant Shouts and Loud Horns

Texas wasn’t particularly extraordinary in any way. The streets were crowded in the same way, the people drove their cars in the same way, and the children run playing in the same way. Jason felt somewhat disappointed, because he was expecting Texas to be an amazing place; at least that was what felt like travelling with Percy.

They travelled together for the whole day, and by dusk they got there.

Not to his surprise, Percy had misplaced the address of his girlfriend’s place, which meant that they would have to improvise.

“ _Hey Annie, it’s Percy and I really need you to call me back, because we are lost. Uh, thanks”_ he says in the voicemail, after the third time she did not pick up. “I doubt she’ll listen to this, though” he says to Jason. “We hardly even remember voicemails”

Jason thought it wasn’t exactly _smart_ but decided not to mention anything. He was just a hitchhiker, going along the path.

“Worst case scenario, we don’t find her and have to sleep in a motel again” Percy comments, trying to end up the silence.

“You don’t have any idea where she is? I mean… not the city or something?” Jason tried

“No. I remember her saying it was near the _biggest ball of stamps in the world,_ and we are pretty close to it, so I think it’s near. But I don’t remember it properly.” He frowns. “I’m sorry for messing it up”

“You don’t have to apologize to me. I am here for no particular reason. You don’t have to explain anything”

“I feel like I should”

Jason shrugs, “Don’t think too much about it. We should get a place to sleep. It’s getting late”

 

Much to their surprise, they _were_ in the city of the _biggest ball of stamps_ and it was surprising how many people were actually interested in seeing a giant ball of stamps. So many that the only decent motel in the city was packed.

“I have one room left” the old lady said, holding the key “It’s a two beds room” she explains.

Jason accepted it, even though Percy was shocked by the price. The room was small and cozy, in the first floor, with two bed with green sheets on, a bathroom, a small TV, and the big window that opened to the parking lot. Percy parked his car by the window while Jason got to the shower.

The room was small enough that from any point in the room Percy could see Jason’s shape in the bathroom through the open door (One minute before Jason locked the door and had to shout for help, because he couldn’t manage to open the lock again.). He avoided being inside until Jason finished, in order to give the boy some privacy. And maybe because he would be too curious, and might end up doing awful things.

When was Percy’s turn to shower, who also didn’t dared to close the door, Jason concentrated on his phone, because things were much more clear to him. He had no problems with admitting that other guys were attractive, and in more times than he would like to admit, he had ruined blooming friendships with lust. And in this particular case, he still needed the ride, because the middle of nowhere was the only place he was sure he _didn’t_ wanted to be.

Percy came out of the shower, with a towel in his waist and water dripping from his chest. It took half of Jason’s concentration to not stare (and the other half to hide the growing erection in his pants). He watches as Percy kneels down to pick up something from his backpack, and he is too busy _not staring_ at Percy’s back to figure what he is searching.

“You want to choose the beds?” Jason asks, giving him another thing to think

“You can take that one,” Percy says, indicating the one Jason is lying on, “I don’t like sleeping by the wall”

Jason picks up his phone again and opens the first game he sees. Virtual animals are better than half naked boys sharing the room with you.

* * *

Percy isn’t exactly shameless. Or good at seduction. He only started dating Annabeth because _she_ kissed him in front of the whole school, after a long time of flirting. And maybe, it was just an accident. He forgot his underwear in the bag, outside the bathroom. He only realized it after he had finished showering. He considered all of his options:

  1.        Sleeping with no underwear (which seemed appealing)
  2.        Go out wrapped in a towel and pick up a clean one (which seemed more likely)



The only problem is that Jason was outside. And not that he had any type of prejudice, he just thought that maybe it would be a little too much joyful, to himself...

He stood behind the door for three and a half minutes that seemed to last three and a half hours considering what to do. He looked again and saw Jason busy with his phone, not even looking at him. He took a deep breath and opened the door. Jason didn’t even moved his eyes from the phone.

There is a type of feeling when you _know_ someone is staring at you. Percy felt that in the minute he kneeled on the floor. And he couldn’t explain exactly, normally he would blame on hormones, but the idea that Jason was watching him was enough to turn him on. Maybe he could have picked up his underwear faster, and maybe he could have moved faster to the bathroom, and most of all, he could have made all of that without “accidentally” dropping the towel.

“Sorry, sorry” he apologizes, picking up the towel from the floor and rushing into the bathroom again. Although it was exciting, he was not brave enough to keep the game. If half of the things Jason had told him were true, he would be eaten alive.

Percy dressed quickly, with his heart racing, imagining Jason’s reaction when he got out of the bathroom. A million of possible scenarios crossed his mind, from indifference to embarrassment to a hilarious joke. (And even though he refused to admit, there was a scenario where it ended up like cheap porn)

“Do you mind if I turn on the television?” Percy asked, sitting on his bed, holding the remote.

“Go ahead” Jason nods, without looking away from his phone.

 _Indifference, I see,_ Percy though zapping through the channels. He didn’t supposed he could watch anything quality in the middle of the week in a cheap, however greatly overpriced, motel in Texas. But there was something about bad TV movies from the 90’s that were appealing to him. So he ended up watching the heartfelt story of a girl who overcomes her dyslexia and becomes an international best-seller writer. Somewhere in the middle of the movie Jason started to pay attention to it, and sometimes Percy looked away from the television to get a glimpse of Jason’s expression. He always looked puzzled, like he couldn’t believe he was actually watching that.

“What kind of movies do you like?” Percy asks, as the credits roll up.

“Artsy ones” he says quickly “My mother tried to be a director once, and decided to watch all of the artsy movies ever produced in the history of mankind. I watched a few with her. Well, I watched, she slept.” He smiled at the memory “That was during a particularly nice summer”

Percy was hesitant. He realized that this was a nice memory Jason had about his mother, and considering how bitter he had talked about his parents before, he wouldn’t doubt that this was the only good memory remaining inside him. He decided not to push.

“Do you want to sleep already?” Percy asks, hoping that Jason understood that it was a cue to end the subject. He didn’t wanted the boy to start thinking about home again.

As if he was replying, Jason yawned.

Percy laughed and started to prepare to bed.

He had a very long and complicated ritual: brush his teeth, lock the door, take off his shirt, pick up his covers, plug his cellphone on the charger, check the hours, check the door, _then_ turn off the lights and lay down.

By the time he finished it all, Jason was already asleep.

* * *

Jason woke up in the middle of the night, with a scream followed by a loud noise He sat on the bed, confused and surprised, not knowing what was happening.

“Percy?” he calls, whispering.

“I’m okay” he replies and turns on the lights.

His bed broke, and a sharp piece of wood is pointing up. The mattress is deeply stuck in the wreckage. “The bed broke while I was sleeping, but I didn’t realized” he explains “So I screamed because I felt something on my leg. I thought it was an animal or something. But when I moved, it ended up breaking at last” he explained, but the words didn’t made sense to Jason. It was the middle of the night and he was still half asleep and not exactly caring about the entire situation.

“Come on” he moves until he touched the wall “You can sleep with me” he offers and turns facing the wall, not waiting for Percy to accept his invitation.

However, he feels a warm body joining him on the bed. When he turns, he sees Percy legs, and look down to see the boys head, fluffing the pillow. He isn’t surprised. Sleeping like this is the only way two boys can share a bed and still be slightly decent.

He is aware of Percy’s weight on the bed, and for the longest time he squeezes himself in his space, to not touch Percy. And that proves to be ridiculous and excessively tiring. Eventually, he slowly relaxes and feels Percy’s body against his.

He can feel the warmth of the boy, even though they are sleeping in different covers; he can feel the smell coming from his skin and it takes all of his strength to not extend his hand and carefully stroke Percy. He hears both of them breathing at the same pace, like they are one single organism. The silence in the room is more than the lack of noise. It feels like they are both too afraid to move, afraid to talk, and even to think, because they never been this close. It’s almost like now they share a strong bond.

Jason can barely sleep all night, too worried about Percy in his bed, and afraid he’ll do anything stupid while sleeping, like talking the amount of dirty shit that crosses his mind, or accidentally touch Percy or something like that. Jason is sure he will mess it all up somehow.

When they wake up in the next morning, it’s like the hesitancy of the previous night never happened.

Jason’s knee is on top of Percy’s naked torso, while the boy’s hand rests on the other’s thigh.

In the minute that both of them wake up, they move from that position, going back to the forced distance of the night before.

“Hey” Jason breaks the silence, testing the water.

“Hey” Percy replies, sleepy.

They don’t speak again for a whole minute. But neither move from the bed either. Jason is careful to not enjoy this proximity way too much.

“What do you say about visiting the world’s biggest stamp ball?” Percy offers, sitting on the bed.

* * *

Percy can’t believe that there is an actual line of people who genuinely _want_ to see _the world’s biggest stamp ball._ Sure, he and Jason are on the line too, but as a polite joke. After that awkwardness that was sharing a small bed, they had to come up with something in order to regain that easiness that had been their relationship so far.

“I really hope it’s worth it” Jason says, while they move, slowly.

The stamp ball is inside the Post Office Museum, which contains several types of papers for letters and different types of ink. And Percy realizes that there isn’t much variation to letters; at least not enough to be theme of a museum by itself. Maybe it’s the reason they needed the biggest ball of stamp.

It takes them another half an hour until it’s their turn to get in the main room.

Percy is blown away by the actual size of it. It is bigger than a truck and hard to believe it’s made of stamps only. He imagines how much money they spent on building that ridiculous thing.

“Sure it’s big” He mentions.

“And it _is_ made of stamps…” Jason agrees

“But it’s sort of disappointing”

“I thought it would be more special”

“It’s a stamp ball. What did you expected?”

“I don’t know. Colored lights?”

“It’s pretty straight forward. It’s a ball. It’s made of stamp.”

Jason shrugs and decides that he lost.

“Wait, take a picture of me in front of it. To show Annabeth.” He explains and finds a corner near the ball. He is almost blinded by the flash of the camera.

In the same minute, a security guard comes screaming at them, that _you read the sign all over and you are aware that is absolutely_ forbidden _to take pictures from the pieces, you reckless teenagers, nearly delinquent, destroying public property like that_ inviting them to leave.

They spent the rest of the morning driving around, without a place to go. Considering that Annabeth hadn’t returned any of his calls or texts (22 and 47, respectively), he was starting to get worried. In order to clear his head, they decided to find a place to eat. But they were too picky to stop at the first decent place in the city. They had to drive around for another twenty minutes, until a place they were equally happy about it. They agreed on a Burger King, to Percy’s happiness.

They stood in line, surrounded by little kids and annoyed parents. Percy wondered if when he had children he would look this bothered. He supposed so.

They got a table and sat, face to face, and ate in silence. Percy, because he was too busy trying to not get ketchup on his t-shirt, Jason because he had run off things to talk about. And was already preparing to their departure. They managed to keep stay the whole meal without mentioning Annabeth, being lost or the previous night. To a less curious watcher, they seemed to be only two friends having a lunch together.

Sometime in the middle of their lunch, Percy’s phone went off.

_you’re in the right city_

_orange block ave n 314 don’t ring the bell just come up_

“It’s Annabeth” he explains, watching his phone “She says that she forgot her phone home and couldn’t help us. And she is curious to meet you.” He smiled, happy because his trip was about to end, finally in his main goal. He was so excited to see Annabeth that he barely noticed Jason’s frown. “I guess that’s finally it, right?” he smiled, so brightly that Jason had to nod.

By the time they finished, Jason noticed a big stain of mustard in Percy’s pants, but he didn’t mentioned it.

* * *

Finding her building wasn’t hard at all. It was the only one in the block who looked old, but preserved. Also, it was near a coffee shop, and Jason supposed that was important too.

Percy reached for the door, but it opened from inside, while a tall blonde guy came running down, putting on a t-shit. He nodded and Jason got the see the glimpse of a scar in his face, although he couldn’t be sure he had seen anything.

As soon as they reached the top of the staircase, Jason heard an excited scream, and then footsteps running in his direction. By the time that _he_ finished the stairs, Percy was already involved in a hug from her, who giggled and said over and over how much she had missed him. Jason stood there, waiting for the introductions.

It took a while for Annabeth to notice him, but when she did, her eyes widened, as if she was seeing some kind of ghost. “Uh… Percy”

He looks back at Jason and smiled “Oh, yeah, right. Annabeth, this is Jason. We’ve met on the road and he been travelling with me. Jason, this is Annabeth,” he smiled.

Jason extended his hand “It’s so nice to finally meet. I’ve heard a lot of things about you”

 

They sat at the table, to catch up. And although whatever they were talking could possibly be important, it was very hard for him to concentrate. When he could see Annabeth’s hand going up and down Percy’s thigh, and the way she laughed extra high whenever he said something remotely funny, or how she kept kissing his neck.

It was painful to watch.

It took him another hour (and to see them sharing intense kisses) to take the courage to leave.

“You don’t have to go” Annabeth says, but it’s not like he need to read minds to see that she doesn’t mean it

“It’s late. And I have to go back to the motel. I’ll leave early tomorrow” he stands, stretching his arms.

“I’ll drive you” Percy stands up as well. “It’s a long run”

“Don’t need to” Jason smiles. “Stay. You miss her” he isn’t asking.

“She won’t mind” Percy assures, but Annabeth’s face doesn’t say the same thing.

But Jason doesn’t argue, because he is selfish that way.

 

As soon as they get into the car, Percy turns to him

“What did you think of her?” he asks, eyes bright and hopeful.

“I think she is nice” Jason says, trying not to sound hesitant. He didn’t had time to form an opinion on the girl yet. An _impartial_ opinion.

They were quiet through the dark night. Percy drove like he knew the city already, confident and decided, like it was a place he had known all along. Jason barely had the time to see a shape jump in front of the car before he heard the brakes, and then felt Percy’s hand clutching his chest holding him, as the car threw both of them forward, to the windshield.


	4. Tiptoeing Over Broken Glass

When Percy was a kid he always hated that his mother forced him to use a seatbelt. He said to her, several times, that it didn’t mattered if he was in a seatbelt or not, because in the case of a car crash he would simply fly out of the window, because of a secret he couldn’t tell her (that he was, in fact, Superman, and Percy Jackson was his boring alias). Obviously, he was wrong.

“HOLY FUCK” he gasped, as he felt the pull on his chest. _Thank God for seatbelts_ , he would’ve thought, if he wasn’t so happy for just being alive.

Jason was equally shocked. His eyes big and his breath uneven, as if he had just ran a marathon.

“What the fuck just happened?” Jason turned to him, heavy breathing and pale.

“There was a fucking deer in the middle of the road!”

“Percy, this is Texas. There aren’t any deers in a fucking two hundred thousand miles radius” he shakes his head.

“I could swear it was a fucking deer” he affirms.

Only then he realizes that his hand is resting on Jason’s chest, because in the moment of the non-colision he put it there, as if his superman powers could save Jason’s life.

“We almost died” Percy states, over reacting “We need a manly reaction to it”

“We should go get a beer” Jason suggests, because this is what he learned that men do.

“ _we should totally get a beer!_ ” and his excitement is mutually exclusive with the desired manliness approach. Jason appreciates it either way.

 

They drive around, looking for a pub. Of course they can find several of them, _This is Texas after all,_ Jason thinks, bitterly, in part because he knows their little trip is very close to its ending.

Eventually, the beer escalates to another suggestion. They settle for a colorful cocktail, before Jason reminds him that the point of the alcohol is to bring out the men in them. So they go for the basic scotch. And then Percy remembers about the time he nearly died because he _accidently_ took half a bottle of it. So they decide against that too.

“What if we just randomly choose something?” Jason suggests,

And Percy loves the idea.

They drive around until they find a little pub, squeezed between a small market and a hair salon, closed at that time. There are a lot of cars parked outside, and they imagine that they will be met by an enormous crowd inside.

“Can this count as a near-death experience?” Percy asks, leaving the car. “I need a reason to get drunk, and say that _I had a near death experience_ is much better than _I almost hit a ghost deer_ “ he says, closing the car door.

Jason laughed, out of pure shock. Although it all had been way too fast, he was still affected by the near-accident. In some ways, he was paranoid about life and death and quick an end can be.

They got inside the pub, with its wood counter and a yellow-ish light. And as if they need a reminder that they _were_ in Texas, there was a bunch of obese and bearded men drinking beers and playing darts, and probably saying offensive things about everything.

“This is exactly what I imagined a pub would look like in Texas” Percy says, looking around, mesmerized.

“Two of the strongest thing you have” Jason asks to the barman, ignoring Percy behind him.

The barman scoffs, considering if those two scrawny kids can handle it, and sure he doesn’t like to imagine that the obvious outcome of the story: both of them will end up crying, confessing eternal love to a random girl, throw up, start a fight with the father and boyfriend of said girl. And he will be forced to wipe the vomit and blood of the floor. He sighs as he pours the drink.

The green liquid fills less than half a cup, and the strong smell fills the air.

They sit side by side at the counter, and look closely and silently at their drinks, for whole thirty seconds before deciding that they _are_ men enough to handle it.

“To strong drinks” Percy raises his glass

“To being invincible” Jason prompts

“To being indestructible” Percy completes

“To ghost deers!” Jason cheers and laughs.

They drink it all in one long and tortured shot. Percy feels his throat burning and immediately starts to cough, because he wasn’t ready for it. Jason feels dizzy so fast that the glass slips between his fingers and crashes on the floor.

The barman sighs and adds it to his list, _vomit, blood and glass._

They move to a table, and decide to order something to eat, because they have time to waste before Jason has to go to the motel. Each one of them orders a hot dog, because Jason thinks it sounds funny. Percy laughs too, and everyone around wonders if they are high. They eat with giggles between bites, and it’s only on the half that they start to feel dizzy and more stupid.

However, there is something unpredictable that makes boys make stupid things. Like drink an unnamed alcohol beverage, while you’re underage, and _decide_ to drive a car. Of course they only realized it way too late.

Jason was the talkative type of drunk. Somewhere after that one single drink, he lost control of his tongue, which was awful, because he was one to spill all of his secrets ( _It was jussst one timeee, an’ I swor to nver fuck a teache agin_ ); the other times, what he spoke were just a group of disgruntled consonants, making weird noises, scaring anyone who wasn’t equally drunk; which wasn’t Percy’s current state.

Moved by unknown forces, Percy decided that it was time to leave, and they should go to the car. It took him five whole minutes of searching between his three pockets until he found the car keys, and another five until he stopped laughing about it. When they managed to get in the car, thankfully, Percy is way to drunk to even manage to turn on the engine. So in a silent, drunk and confusing agreement, they sleep in the car, side by side.

 

Percy wakes feeling a hand on his face (“ _I really fucking love you, dude. I fucking do”_ he certainly remembers the words, but can’t place them exactly), and his face feels sweaty and his head weights tons and he wants to throw up. He opens up the door and stands up too fast, feeling his head turn around, mixed with the wind on his face, making him even more sick. But he can’t throw up. He sits on the driver’s seat, with the door open, and put his head between his knees, because he heard someone say once that it helps to cure dizziness.

Jason only wakes up half an hour later, after Percy managed to go back inside the pub, found a bathroom, washed his face, regretted the previous night decisions, threw up, regretted a little more, and went back to the car.

“So you _are_ alive” Percy jokes, as Jason open his eyes, confused.

“I wasn’t before?” Jason closes his eyes again, because the sunlight is blinding him.

“I wasn’t sure. Not after all the shit you did last night”

“I don’t remember” besides being talkative, he was also the type of drunks who forgets the whole night when the morning comes. He always considered it a blessing.

“You did some pretty harsh shit” Percy tauntes.

“…I did?” his voice sounded more like an apology than a confirmation

“You did…”

Jason is terrified of learning what he did. From his historic, he might have done anything, from tap dancing naked in the full bar to a line of cocaine from a nurse’s belly. And maybe, maybe he managed to fuck up his friendship. _He knows me for three days and I already fucked up,_ he thinks, bitterly, biting his tongue. He is curious to know, but afraid of the answer.

“You kissed me” Percy finally says. Jason was looking at him like a tortured soul, and Percy had to put him off his misery. He takes a deep breath before continuing: “And don’t worry. I kissed back… I think” he doesn’t remember what happens, but since he already started, he might as well finish with a fantasy touch. Fantasy that he might have been too much of a coward to make it true.

“I’m sorry” Jason apologizes, too formally, his hand over his stomach. “I fucked up, didn’t I?”

“Nah” Percy smiled “Which friends don’t kiss each other sometimes?”

Jason gave a nervous laugh. _You would be surprise how serious I took this back in high school._ “Friends who respect other friend’s girlfriends”

Percy’s hear shrank as he thought of Annabeth, at her home, probably still waiting for him. He promised he would be back, and he spent the whole night sleeping in his car with Jason. He felt guilty. And wasn’t even sure if he had any reason to feel guilty about.

“Time to go home, yeah?” Jason offered, with a forced smile.

“One last drive?” Percy suggests, trying to ignore that they will, soon, part ways.

“For what?”

“I don’t know. We could go on a hunt for something. Something to keep your journey on. I don’t know. Like, keychains or something”

“You drive me all the way to Texas and the only thing I’ll take from here are keychains?”

“Okay. A cowboy hat. A cactus. I don’t know. We’ll improvise”

 

Maybe because he was trying too hard, but they drove around, searching for a place to buy something, and didn’t managed to find one interesting stop. “For a tourist city, there are very few “gift shops around here”

“We’ll keep searching” Jason agreed, happy to do it.

 

They stopped at a small mall that had a restaurant, a cyber café, a shoe store and a records store. They went in all of the shops, looking at everything, and mostly enjoying each other company. Jason was very quiet, so he mostly listened while Percy commented on the products that they found. On the records store, they found a photo booth.

“We have to go there” Jason drags Percy “I need to remember you when I’m gone.”

“But why?” Percy wasn’t a big fan of pictures

“Because I took pictures with everyone that was important to this trip. I have polaroids of all the people I travelled with, as well as pictures of all of my hotel rooms and the view from each window, plus pictures from things I thought were interesting.”

“…and then you’ll go away?” he asks, hesitantly

“…then I’ll go away” Jason confirms, nodding. _Unless you want me to stay_ , is implicit, and he isn’t sure if he should say that out loud.

He put the money on the slot and slides on the bench next to him. “Smile” he says, as he half-hugs Percy.

They took five pictures.

In the first one, Jason is hugging Percy with one arm and has a huge smile, while Percy looks positively disoriented.

The second one Percy pulled out a funny face and Jason is laughing at him.

The third, Jason closed his eyes and pouted, while Percy just stares at Jason with a furred brow.

The fourth one had Percy kissing Jason’s cheek.

The fifth one, they didn’t see being taken. Both too busy, caught in a kiss. Hands roughly caressing faces and closed eyes, in a hurry and anxiety. The kiss is tensed and mechanical, uneasy and ashamed. Jason holds Percy’s face, as if he was afraid that the other was going to run away from him. Percy’s hands grab Jason’s arms, and don’t move until they are inches apart, and out of breath. Jason pulls the curtain out of the booth and leaves in a hurry.

Percy sits there, in shock, for a whole minute. When he finally gets out of the booth, Jason is already crossing the door. He reaches for the pictures and runs through the door, after him.

 

“Jason!” he yells, once he makes it out of the store. The blonde is slowly walking to Percy’s car. He looks back and wave, gesticulating to Percy to come to him. He has some sort of sad smile on his face. Percy runs to the car.

“I’m sorry, that was very inappropriate” Jason apologizes, once Percy is near enough to hear him “But I had to do it before I leave. So I’m sorry.”

“…wait, I’m… just… you know?”

“I know, I did this shit to you. Twice. Is not fair, I know” he sounds like he was apologizing, “And It’s shitty, I know, but I’m selfish and wanted to remember kissing you” he confesses.

Jason takes a moment to watch Percy and wait for his reaction, as if something terrible may happen. When he doesn’t say anything, Jason continues. “And I know I kissed you more times than your girlfriend in the last twelve hours, and I wish I was sorry, I really do, but I’m not.” He finishes, smiling.

“You’re an amazing boy, Percy. And spending three days with you was better than this entire trip already. Everything was crap until I stopped by your window.”

Percy is confused. He isn’t used to people openly complimenting him like this. Annabeth’s way of complimenting is rather aggressive and sarcastic, and it takes him a while to realize that Jason _is_ indeed being completely honest. It may be the idea of being loved that prompts him to suggest stupid things.

“I am coming with you, I don’t care where, I’m going” he says abruptly

“We are not a couple of stupid teenagers. You have to go to Annabeth. And I’ll go away. You have your life.”

“You could be a part of it’ Percy suggests, so soft it’s almost a whisper.

“You have your life… and I have to go” he repeats, as if to convince himself that is the right thing to do.

Percy understands it. But he grew attached to Jason. Travelling alone is sad and boring. Jason made the trip fun. Even when he was just sleeping. He needed a road buddy. “But-“he begins.

“Sorry, Percy” Jason apologizes again. He reached into his backpack. “I bought for you” He gives Percy a small package. “This literally sounds like California.” He smiles, stupidly ”So whenever you hear it, you remember me, and imagine me in a beach in sunglasses and a lot of hot people in little clothing drinking and having fun, okay?” he smiles again. “Goodbye, Percy”. He opens his arms, offering a hug

Percy walks to him. The hug is empty. He doesn’t like the feeling of it. He imagines it this will be the last time he sees Jason. And he doesn’t like that. He wanted them to be together for more time, and share more stories and then drink again, and get hangover again, and then laugh about it while they share a great big apartment in Manhattan. Even though they are so different, they are similar enough to be together without bothering one another. Or how else could they explain how flawlessly in harmony they were these past days?

“Goodbye” he mutters. Jason throws his backpack on back and walks out of the parking lot. He still has Percy’s phone number on his pocket, but he promises himself to never call.

And for a while he manages to keep his promise

When Percy drives back to Annabeth, he can only think of the lyrics of the cd Jason gave him. They stick to his tongue and he can’t get rid of them. He supposes they are a good metaphor for Jason Grace. He wouldn’t forget him either.


End file.
